Raging Waters

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go to Raging Waters thanks to the Utah Foster Care Foundation. Thankfully, Monday is Jeff's day off work, so he was able to join us as well after class. This year was much better than last year, by far. The kids got along so well, we only had a couple arguments. We decided to spend a little bit more money and rent tubes. This made a huge difference compared to last year. We didn't have to wait for free tubes to become available for the slides and we had tubes for the Wave Pool and the Lazy River.

I started taking pictures, mostly of Little E, but had so much fun that I forgot to take more pictures of the other kids. I'm kind of upset about that because now we don't have pictures of the memories that we had of our fun. Darn it all!!! Well, I guess there's always next year, right?

Even Little E had a blast in the Lazy River. He rode on my lap while I was sitting on a tube. He thought that it was most relaxing and almost fell asleep. The water was fairly chilly, so he didn't appreciate it much when Jeff and I put his legs in the kiddie pool. But he still had a good time just being outside. He is definitely an outdoors baby.

What We've Been Up To

This summer has been absolutely wonderful!!! We kicked it off Memorial Day Weekend by going to the Miller Family Reunion at Wolf Creek. We spent 3 glorious days in the condos there and even had fun in the cold, cold water. The older boys were having a race in the raft from the shore, around the buoy, and back to shore. Donovan beat them all by doing it in 4 minutes and 18 seconds.

Donovan's winning run.

Matthew burying his feet in the sand.

Sean and Alayna building a barrier so the waves wouldn't get to the chairs.

Sean completely buried in the sand.

During the second week of June we went up to Park City and stayed a couple nights at the condos there as well. Although I don't have any pictures to show it, we had a blast!!! We usually go on the Alpine Slide, but this year we decided to ride the Alpine Coaster. Way more fun!!! Then we did the usual activities at the condos, Wii tournaments in the children's room, swimming, spending all our change in the arcade, etc. Best of all, it was sooooo relaxing!

Onto Father's Day. Jeff finally got the camera that he has been wanting for quite sometime, a digital SLR. He's been taking pictures nonstop since he got it, including several, several pictures on Father's Day, so I'll only show a few here. We got both dads (grandpas) a personalized tie with our childrens' names on it.

Grandpa Miller holding up his tie with the kids.

My grandpa broke his hip a couple weeks before Father's Day. So, we visited
him at the rehab facility. We got him a book from one of his favorite General
Authorities, Elder Wirthlin, called Press On.

Here's Grandpa Burgener holding up his tie. The ties also say "We Love
Grandpa" on the bottom.

A week after Father's Day, Jeff and boys went to our ward's Father's & Son's Campout. They had a lot of fun!!! My favorite pictures are of the boys fishing.

Donovan

Sean

Matthew

All three boys.

A couple weekends ago we went to Strawberry Lake, Soldier Creek, for our ward campout. Most of the pictures that we took were of Little E, but since we can't post those here you'll just have to believe me that they were super cute. We had a pretty good time, but the campground was disappointing. It was so full of sagebrush that it was very difficult to find a clear, flat spot for the tents. Many families that came up decided not to spend the night because of these conditions. However, we were lucky because we were the first one's there so we got first pick. Our area was pretty nice. We had our own fire pit and picnic table, and we were on a hill that overlooked the reservoir. We rented a fishing boat and Jeff took the kids on the lake while I tried fishing from the shoreline. None of us caught anything, not even a bite. But we had a good time trying.

Well, that's it for now. We are going to be going on another adventure in a couple weeks down to Arches. We'll be there for 5 days, so I'm sure we'll come back with many pictures as well as some pretty good stories.

Pictures

I promised pictures so here they are. I'm a month late in posting them, but better late than never, right?! We went to Discovery Gateway and Clark Planetarium. Brooklynn had a really good time, even though I can't post those pictures here, but she like the large Legos at Discovery Gateway the best.

For whatever reason, the pictures from the planetarium, which we visited first, magically disappeared from my camera. There wasn't that many pictures, so I'm not too terribly upset, but still. I had to change the batteries and when I did that, it erased all the pictures. Darn camera. Anyway, without further ado:

Pictures, Well . . . Not

I wish so badly that I could post pictures of Brooklynn on here, but due to some new confidentiality rules from DCFS, I can no longer do that. I have so many of her too. I took loads on Christmas Day, mostly for her birthmom to have, and so many since then as well.

I got the cutest shot of her yesterday afternoon sleeping. Now, this is a rare opportunity that I can get a picture of her while sleeping because she is such a light sleeper and will wake up at the teeniest sound. So when I went into her room to get her, so I could get the kids to school, she didn't wake up. I ran to my room to get my camera and to my surprise, she was still asleep when I got back to her room, even though I left the door open and the kids were being their quietest. She was so cute!! She was sleeping on top of the teddy bear that her birthmom had given her for Christmas. I got two pictures before she woke up. I was hoping to get a closeup of her beautiful face, but no such luck. I hope I will get another chance.

Then, silly me, I didn't take a single picture of Sean on his birthday or at his party. How crazy is that?! I just haven't been myself lately due to some health issues and I guess the Lortab has been messing with my mind because it didn't even occur to me to take pictures. What another rare opportunity that I missed there as well. Not only does a kid turn 13 years old once in his life, but we were able to have my sister and her husband come to his party. I can't even remember the last birthday they were able to celebrate with us. All I can say is duh, duh, duh!!

Despite not getting it captured on film, Sean's birthday was great. First of all, I can't believe I have another teenager in the home, where does the time go?! We had a great time being together with my side of the family, as always, and eating pizza and cupcakes. I'm not quite sure how much money he was given in total, as a gift, but he cherished each dollar. He got a couple pairs of much needed school pants. I swear, that kid has grown 3 inches in a couple of months time. He also received a few boxes of ammo to go with his big present this year, a Ruger 10/22. He opened that present a couple days earlier so he could use it while shooting on New Year's Day, a family tradition.

Anyway, I promise that next time I post, I'll have some pictures for you all to enjoy.

Bah, Humbug! Pictures

I finally got the musical pictures in the mail today. I was so excited!!! The photographer that they use is just phenomenal!! Once again, they turned out fabulously! I am just posting a few pictures, because there are so many of them, and I have blurred out the faces of the other children in some of the pictures for privacy reasons.

I am so glad to be able to have these pictures available for our use to remember the wonderful times that the boys have had participating in their school musicals. The only thing I wished we had this year was a video. They filmed this year's performance, but the film that the videographer used was defective. So, no DVD this year. I am so bummed!! All I have now are the memories of it in my head, and we all know how fast those fly away.

Cindy Lou Who

Check this out!!! One of Alayna's friends' mom fixes her daughters hair like Cindy Lou Who every year for the last day of school before winter vacation. This year, she also did Alayna's hair. How sweet is that?! So, here is Alayna as Cindy Lou Who. Isn't she the cutest thing ever?!

Baking Cookies

We decided that cookies sounded really good, so I gave the recipe book to Matthew and told him to pick which cookie we should make. He first chose peanut butter cookies, but then he decided that he wanted to eat cookie dough so we went with chocolate chip cookies. Then, to my amazement, Matthew decided that he wanted to make the cookies all by himself. So, he did, with only a little bit of help from me. He did a fantastic job. The cookies turned out wonderful and they were gone in a matter of hours. Awesome job Matthew!!!